News
Tesla lowers price of China Model 3 to undercut BMW and Mercedes in strategic play
Tesla reduced the price of its Rear-Wheel Drive Made-in-China (MIC) Model 3 to RMB 299,050 or $42,919 after government subsidies. The price of the mass-produced electric sedan was initially pegged at $50,000, but in a surprise update on Friday, the Elon Musk-led electric carmaker lowered its price beneath a major psychological barrier of RMB 300,000, just days before the significant January 7 date. The price of the Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive Model 3 Long Range and Performance variant remains the same at 439,900 yuan ($63,086) and 509,900 yuan ($73,124), respectively.
The 16 percent price reduction on locally-produced Model 3 is made possible by new energy subsidies recently announced by the Chinese government. Tesla offers as much as RMB 24,750 savings for private purchases and RMB 17,325 for those operating new energy passenger cars. The Tesla China website now displays the adjusted prices of the locally-made Model 3s.
Tesla’s price reduction puts Model 3 in a category that’s strategically aimed at the entry-level luxury sedan category, with concentrations on Mercedes C Class and BMW 3 Series.
The question is if you were a Chinese customer, what would you buy?
1. A Tesla Model 3 starting at ¥299,050
2. A BMW 3 Series starting at ¥313,900
3. A Mercedes C300 starting at ¥308,000— Legacy 🚗 is f**ked (@tesla4k) January 3, 2020
Here comes the first order confirmation right after MIC #Model3 price drop today. More sales are on the way. Now Model 3 costs less than Merc C Class and BMW 3 Series. More young ppl will be able to afford Model 3s. Shoutout to @elonmusk @teslacn pic.twitter.com/A5S8qWcrif
— Ray (@ray4tesla) January 3, 2020
The latest development follows the announcement of the electric carmaker that the second round of Made-in-China Model 3 deliveries will happen on Jan. 7 at the Gigafactory Shanghai facility where the first 15 units of the mass-produced electric sedan were symbolically handed over to employees of Tesla.
The company also revealed during the Gigafactory 3 Delivery Ceremony that 30 percent of the parts used to build the Model 3 in China is locally-sourced, but with plans to completely localize its supply chain and open the possibility to more price adjustments in the future.
The cheaper entry-level Model 3 can help Tesla lure more customers away from local electric car makers and global brands in the largest EV market in the world. Tesla believes China could become the biggest market for its Model 3 and it might well be a key market that can help it achieve sustained profitability.
Recently, Tesla also announced that the Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai has achieved its Model 3 production goal and has been rolling out 280 cars per 10-hour shift or roughly 1,500 units a week. It plans to ramp up production and will likely hit 3,000 Model 3 a week when more production workers join the frontline.
The China arm of the Palo Alto, California-based company has been doing a hiring spree to add more people to help in different production line positions such as quality control, welding, painting, powertrain, and assembly, among others.
The first deliveries of the Made-in-China Model 3 happened exactly 357 days after the Gigafactory facility broke ground, an amazing feat for the first car plant in China wholly owned by a foreign carmaker.
Tesla Cybertruck trims saw a big price change, at least on two of the three available to consumers, as demand for the all-electric pickup appears to be increasing.
Tesla bumped up its Base All-Wheel-Drive trim level up to $74,990 from $69,990 and the Premium All-Wheel-Drive configuration from $79,990 to $84,990. The Cyberbeast price remains unchanged at $99,990.
🚨 Cybertruck prices went up as Tesla bumped them 7%
– Tesla Cybertruck AWD is now $74,990
– Tesla Cybertruck Premium AWD now $84,990
– Tesla Cyberbeast now $99,990 https://t.co/MYJbaw56GL— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) August 25, 2026
Despite questions of demand for the truck, Tesla is bumping its two least expensive trims up $5,000 to signal that there are plenty of buyers. Although SpaceX has been buying Tesla Cybertruck units to utilize as company vehicles, it is no secret that the Cybertruck is among the most sought-after Tesla models out there.
The issue has always been pricing, at least for the most part. When Tesla initially launched the Cybertruck AWD at $59,990 a few months back, the company stated that price would remain intact for just ten days due to the influx of orders it received.
Cybertruck Sales: Is It the Product or Pricing?
Depending on who you ask, you will likely hear one of two explanations for relatively low Cybertruck sales: either the product itself or the pricing.
Yes, this is the best-selling all-electric pickup on the market. However, there are people who simply hate the look of it, which I understand, but do not agree with. Look is totally subjective, and I love the look of the Cybertruck.
Some people will not buy the Cybertruck because of the look, but I am under the impression that sales would be much better if this truck were priced lower; something that might not be possible considering Tesla’s need to make money on its products. When it was unveiled in 2019, its most expensive trim level was $69,990. Now, the cheapest trim level is more expensive than that.
I would be in a Cybertruck if it were more affordable. I LOVE my Model Y, but Cybertruck is the best vehicle Tesla makes, and it’s not particularly close. Even in the base model, the steer-by-wire, the space, storage, and performance make it more desirable than the Model Y to me. I cannot be the only Tesla owner without a Cybertruck who feels this way.
If you’re interested in buying a Tesla vehicle, use my referral link.
Energy
Tesla Semi factory is getting a celebration nobody expected
Tesla will inaugurate its Nevada Semi factory September 24, five months after production quietly began ramping.
Tesla says it will officially inaugurate its new Semi factory in Nevada next month. The Tesla Semi account posted the announcement on X, sharing a graphic titled “Semi Rollout” with a date of September 24. No further details were given about the format of the event or who would attend.
While Tesla’s dedicated Semi plant in Sparks, adjacent to Gigafactory Nevada, opened back in April, with the first trucks rolling off the high volume line on April 29, the timing for the factory inauguration comes at a surprise. The ribbon cutting event five months into production is a break from how Tesla has usually handled its other factories, where the first truck or car off the line typically served as the milestone moment.
Inauguration of new Semi factory in Nevada next month pic.twitter.com/a8kAlxrOOn
— Tesla Semi (@tesla_semi) August 24, 2026
The 1.7 million square foot factory was built as part of a $3.6 billion expansion Tesla announced in early 2023, and it shares a site with the battery cell lines that feed the Semi’s structural pack, a decision meant to remove the supply bottleneck that delayed the truck for years. The plant is designed for 50,000 trucks a year at full ramp. Semi program director Dan Priestley has said production “is now ramping” rather than claiming it has reached scale.
Nine years passed between the Semi’s 2017 unveiling and this stage of production, with the truck slipping from an original 2019 target through hand built pilot units for PepsiCo and a slow build out of the Nevada plant. An inauguration event now gives Tesla a stage to talk up that ramp and reset expectations for how many trucks it can begin delivering at scale.
The September date also lines up with the Semi’s next milestone. Tesla confirmed the truck is heading to Europe with a full unveiling at the IAA Transportation trade show in Hannover, Germany, running September 15 through 20. Between the Nevada event and the Hannover reveal, Tesla has roughly a week and a half in September to make the case that the Semi is now a truck being built and sold on two continents rather than tested in a handful of fleets.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk just set a condition that could end Falcon 9 as we know it
Elon Musk says SpaceX will finally retire Falcon 9 once Starship flies reliably every week.
Elon Musk gave the clearest timeline yet for retiring Falcon 9, SpaceX’s workhorse rocket.
The comment came in a reply on X, where Musk wrote that “once Starship is flying reliably several times per week, it makes sense to shift super scarce SpaceX engineering and production resources to Starship to get launch rate to several times per day, which means winding down Falcon.” He was responding to physicist Casey Handmer, who noted that NASA is reportedly uneasy about SpaceX phasing out Falcon after building what Handmer called the most successful launcher ever, with the fleet nearing 1,000 total launches.
Now @SciGuySpace reports NASA is in a tizzy because after running the most successful launcher ever for more than a decade and nearing 1000 launches, @SpaceX is planning to retire Falcon in favor of Starship in a few years.
Sorry, NASA, you’ve had 15 years to burn down the… https://t.co/uCNoMwK0v9
— Casey Handmer (@CJHandmer) August 22, 2026
Falcon 9 is still SpaceX’s busiest vehicle by far. The company is on pace for roughly 140 to 145 Falcon flights this year, following 165 in 2025, president Gwynne Shotwell told Time earlier in 2026. She has already said Falcon flights would “tail off” as Starship comes online, while reports indicate that SpaceX has stopped booking new Falcon 9 launches past 2028 and halted production of some expendable Falcon hardware, according to Bloomberg.
It’s worth noting that Musk’s post is a condition, and not a countdown on when Falcon will retire. Starship has not yet flown weekly, let alone daily. Its most recent flight in July ended with a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean, a milestone Musk pointed to earlier this month when he said the vehicle’s heat shield problem was effectively solved. SpaceX towed that ship to Christmas Island for inspection, and the next flight, Flight 14, is aimed at putting Starship into orbit for the first time. A tower catch attempt for the upper stage has been pushed back to what Musk has called “a few months” away.
SpaceX and a new Trump order that could rewrite the next decade of launches
The gap between Falcon’s role today and Starship’s promised role tomorrow matters most to NASA. Falcon and its Dragon capsule remain the only way the agency rotates astronauts to and from the International Space Station, and Starship is not certified to carry NASA crews. Musk’s post did not address how that handoff would work if Falcon winds down before a crew-rated Starship variant exists. The timing lines up with Musk’s other recent Starship comments. Two days before the Falcon post, he told a different X user that SpaceX is aiming for more than 30 Starship launches a day by 2030, or roughly 10,000 a year, a figure tied to the Trump administration’s new push for higher national launch cadence. Falcon, which took over a decade to reach its first 100 launches, was never built to approach that kind of volume.
For now, Falcon 9 keeps flying at a near-record pace while Starship works to prove it can do the job Musk has already picked out for it.
Tesla just made Cybertruck more expensive
Tesla Semi factory is getting a celebration nobody expected
